Selling Cross Stitch Online

Making cross stitch is an awesome way to spend your time, however there’s always that one thing in your mind, the question everyone always thinks about “Can I make money from this?”.
Luckily, the answer is yes. There are LOADS of people selling cross stitch and cross stitch patterns online. It’s super simple to do, and doesn’t cost a lot to set up at all (if anything).
I will add the caveat now though, that you aren’t going to suddenly be drowning in dollar bills. But its enough to cover most cross stitch expenses.

Sadly this isn’t how customers are… :/

Deciding what to sell

The first step along this journey is what you’re going to sell. There are two main areas:

Finished cross stitch

Cross stitch patterns

Now, both have their advantages. The first is that you can charge higher amounts per product, whilst making patterns you can shift a dime a dozen and have it all done automatically. If you’re looking from a purely economical point of view, then selling cross stitch patterns is definitely your best bet. If you don’t know how to do this I have a guide on making cross stitch patterns here.

Your brand

The next step is to make a brand. Now, there are loads of different ways to come at this, so I’m going to leave it in your faithful hands, however its important to note that you need a UNIQUE name. This will be the name of your store, and possibly what you put on products too. Depending on your target market, this might be very different. For example I tend to aim towards the younger market with crazy patterns and so a tounge in cheek design and a flash logo work, but if you sell to more traditional stitchers a friendly face might work better.

Setting up a store

So now you have a brand you can set up a store. There are two main online platforms but Etsy is the best. You can find an official guide here.
They take a small cut on each deal, but they set up an automatic sale for digital files (patterns), and have massive amounts of traffic.

Make your products

Well… Yeh. Make the stuff.

Product images

Once you have items to sell the next thing is to get some awesome photos. This is the biggest thing about Etsy sales. The picture is EVERYTHING. Make it professional, make it stand out. Make sure people want to select it. This can be the hardest bit though, so if in doubt copy the style of other people who sell on Etsy until you develop your own style.

Being prepared

With everything set up and ready there is one final thing I would note; be prepared. This can take loads of different forms, but making sure you have enough of what your trying to sell is a big one. If this is finished pieces or kits you need to have the product ready to start when the sale goes through.

Quick tips

– Make sure you can sell your stuff. This is SUPER important. You can read up on cross stitch and copyright over here.
– Ensure you have awesome drawing product descriptions. After all, its all about selling the product.
– Customer care is super important. Just be there to speak to customers, answer questions, help them out.
– Etsy ads are a great way to get some extra eyes on your items, but I would stay away from general terms like “cross stitch” instead be more specific, and you’ll get a better return.
– Make sure you make a profit. If the item costs $10, the sale price needs to be $15 for you to get a $1 profit. But this doesn’t work out as a great wage. Price your time accordingly.
Struggling to sell your patterns online? Check out our post on why your why your cross stitch patterns aren’t selling.

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6 thoughts on “Selling Cross Stitch Online”

I have a lot of designs ready to sell on Esy, but I cannot find anything that explains how to get them out of Patternmaker and into a pdf. I know how to create the design. I need to know how to make the actual pdf file itself. I have searched with every term I can think of and I cannot find the help to make the pdf! All my searches lead me to existing pdf for sale.

Hi, exporting the patterns depends on which pattern maker you have. Only about a quarter of the online versions can export to pdf though. If you advise which one you’re using I can tell you how to export if you want.

Please help!!!! I have researched just about every website I could find so that I sell my finished/completed cross stitch, with very little to no success, whatsoever.
I am looking for a FREE website to sell my cross stitch, including shipping and handling, as I cannot afford neither, at this moment.
As I stated before, the websites, E-Bay, Amazon, etc., have been very little help.
Could you PLEASE assist me in finding a website that is FREE, legitimate and available in the Caribbean? Your assistance in this matter is highly appreciated.
Thank you!

Hi Marie,
I’m afraid there is no where that is totally free that you can sell your completed cross stitch. There are two options though, that are almost free.

ETSY – This is a platform that lets you sell anything handmade. There are lots of completed cross stitch on here, so I would suggest this as the best option. The cost is 20 american cents per item you list. The buyer then pays for shipping and you get all the money before you send anything.

YOUR OWN WEBSITE – For about $15 (american) you can set up a website with an online store and start selling. This would be the same as etsy, but you don’t have to pay 20c each time. The downside is you have to do a lot of marketing yourself.

Based on your comment I would suggest that Etsy is the best option for you.